Commissioners debate capital ranking approach as $9M county core and $19M total requests surface

County finance staff and commissioners spent a substantial portion of the May 6 budget workshop on capital spending requests and how to prioritize them for FY2026.

"We took the category and ranked them that way," Rebecca Romero, accounting specialist, told the commission as she described the capital committee's approach, which ranks requests within categories such as building and facilities, software, equipment and vehicles. Romero said the county core capital request for the coming year is about $9,000,000 and that the total capital requests across county core, component units and outside agencies add up to roughly $19,000,000, although some multi-year project totals extend to 2027–2030.

The nut graf: commissioners debated methodology. Commissioner Rob said the…